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Shower on DVD (1999)

Shower cover art
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Average rating: 72%
1113381120511
3.5
from 296 members
 
Starring: Zhu Xu, Jiang Wu, Du Peng
Director: Zhang Yang
Studio: MOMENTUM PICTURES
Run time: 94 mins
Certificate: 12
Genres: Drama, World Cinema
Languages: Mandarin
Subtitles: English
Released: 06/05/2002

Brief synopsis of Shower

This festival favorite from China tells the touching story of a father whose oldest son leaves him. He remains in Beijing, raising his retarded son and running the local bathhouse. When the elder son mistakenly hears that his father has passed away, he returns to Beijing, only to discover the extreme relevance of the bathhouse and its integral role in the community. SHOWER is an extremely heartwarming film that successfully confronts the issue of changing times in the modern world, while retaining its personal edge at the same time.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 3 stars out of 5 Radio Times

Spicy Love Soup established Zhang Yang among China's most contentious indie directors. However, he's in a less abrasive mood with this obvious but amiable allegory, in which the nation's current obsession with consumerism is symbolised by the imminent closure of a traditional Beijing bathhouse to make way for a soulless shopping mall. City slicker Pu Quanxin's gradual conversion to his father and slow-witted brother's viewpoint hardly makes for incisive politicking. Yet Zhang treats us to a gallery of engaging elderly eccentrics who drink, gamble and gossip their days away — safe from the demands of their (unnecessarily shrewish) womenfolk and the uncaring bureaucrats.

Time Out

It's a bit disconcerting that it starts with its most amusing scene - a daydream vision of the bath-house of the future... Read more on www.timeout.com

Total Film

"...[Yang] provides some smart visual flourishes..."

See all 5 Critics Reviews »

Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 4 starsDon't miss this film!

A customer from Scotland , 21/07/2004

I absolutely loved this film. Having read quite a bit about the last 100 years of Chinese history, then visiting last November to see the state of the country, I was pleasantly surprised at 'Shower's' invitation to peek into the intimacy between the family members and their small community.

This film made me smile from the beginning to the end. It's delightful, moving, and sensitively portrays one of China's most delicate dilemmas today - the generation gap between the 20-somethings and their parents.

I heartily encourage you to take the time to see it - it's well worth it!

  13 out of 14 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsA really likeable film!

mityo from London , 27/09/2004

Entertaining, moving and funny in equal measure.

This is a very pleasing film that gives the audience a look at some of the more forgotten effects of China's increasing modernity.

A film almost impossible not to like.

  6 out of 6 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsBeautiful film

Tomoe from W Sussex , 23/12/2004

I thoroughly enjoyed this film it was a gentle slice-of-life film with a difference. The actors were excellent, the story was moving and amusing, everything about it was superb.

The prodigal son returns to find his father and retarded brother living and working happily in the bath-house they run. He is reluctant to stay, no longer fits in, yet somehow, the customers and his family exert their influence on him. When the whole neighbourhood is threatened with demolition and his father becomes ill, it falls upon him to look after his brother.

I don't want to spoil it by saying any more, but I recommend this film to people who like something a little more gentle and amusing sometimes.

  5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsSimple but effective

A customer from uk , 23/01/2006

Spend a little time with this film and you soon wish you lived round the corner from the bath house it depicts. If you like Chinese cinema in the seemingly laid back but actually a bit of an emotional rollercoaster type of style then you'll love this.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 5 starsSimple but effective

A customer from uk , 23/01/2006

Spend a little time with this film and you soon wish you lived round the corner from the bath house it depicts. If you like Chinese cinema in the seemingly laid back but actually a bit of an emotional rollercoaster type of style then you'll love this.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 starsmakes you want to go there

A customer from England , 24/01/2005

Good insight into Chinese culture. Well worth a watch.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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